


Homage to a Hero

by FireDancer



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Movie Spoilers!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-30
Updated: 2012-05-30
Packaged: 2017-11-06 07:03:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/416086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireDancer/pseuds/FireDancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a Comment_Fic Prompt: Steve learns to use the internet just to refind all of Coulson's ruined cards- he doesn't tell the rest of the team he's caught up on that bit of technology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homage to a Hero

**Author's Note:**

> I might have gone a bit off topic...
> 
> Also this was not betaed and was written at 1230am to Barber's Adagio for Strings, so there's that.

It started with a visit to Beth.

Steve hadn't even known that he'd saved her in particular but he saw the dirty, battered waitress on the news later and her sweet sincerity had reminded him of his own time and he wanted to thank her for that as much as for standing up for them. So after a while, when the restaurant she'd worked at was open again, he went to visit. It was... odd, and soothing, to be in the presence of a true civilian again, and something about the way she looked at him reminded him painfully of Agent Coulson. It was impulse, really, to ask if she knew how to find things like collectors cards, and though she was surprised at first, she was more than willing to help when he explained why he wanted to know. She cried, hearing about the hero no one knew died to save the world, and something eased in Steve's heart to know that he wasn't the only person who grieved for a man he hadn't really known.

He started to go to the cafe a couple times a week and Beth taught him how to use google and bid for things on Ebay between serving other customers, and gave him a celebratory slice of pie when he secured the first replacement for the cards that had been ruined by Coulson's blood. Steve wasn't really sure why he was doing it, why this was the way that felt most appropriate to honor Agent Coulson's memory, but it did, and that was enough justification for him.

It wasn't easy to find them all, Coulson had said it had taken him a couple of years, and Steve thought it would take him longer. Telling the rest of the team he was looking would probably speed things up a lot. Tony could have them within a week, Steve was sure, and Clint and Natasha could probably have stolen the very best the world had to offer in even less time, but... It felt like taking the easy way out. Maybe it was that the search made him feel closer to the man who had died and brought the Avengers together. Maybe the work was a homage to someone who had looked up to him so much, but in the end was a greater hero than Steve could ever be. Maybe it was both.

He didn't tell anyone he knew how to use the internet, was getting pretty good with it, Beth told him, because he didn't want to explain what he was doing. It was selfish, he knew, not letting the others in on the search. Bruce was the only one who hadn't really had any interaction with Agent Coulson at all, and for such a quiet man he had made a deep impression on the Avengers who had met him. They would have welcomed the chance to do something for Coulson... But this was Steve's homage. His penance for not being the hero Coulson had expected.

It was years before he'd gathered all of the cards, and on the next anniversary of Agent Coulson's death he carefully signed each one. The whole set was sold at auction three months later and the money was used to create the Philip Coulson Scholarship for former military personnel looking to attain degrees in Law Enforcement.

All four of the first recipients joined SHIELD.


End file.
